Page 14 of One Life to Loathe

“They own a restaurant too?” Sam looked thrilled at the prospect. “Do they have clam chowder? I love clam chowder. You can only get decent clam chowder on the East Coast, though. They butcher it on the West Coast because they try to make it healthy. Some things just can’t be made the healthy way.”

“They have clam chowder,” Daisy confirmed. “They also have an amazing lobster bisque.”

“Yum.” Sam rubbed her stomach. She actually rubbed it … and it didn’t look corny or out of place or anything. “Do you like clam chowder?”

It took me a moment to realize she was talking to me. “Yeah,” I said finally. “It’s good.” I found myself momentarily getting lost in Sam’s eyes. They were so sparkly and happy. Had I ever felt happiness like that? I didn’t think I had … and wasn’t that a humbling thought?

“We’ll finish the walk down Essex Street,” Daisy said. “Then I’ll take you over to the water stretch. You need to see it. Plus, it will make a great photo op.”

“For what?” I asked. “I haven’t even seen this photographer that Miles promised.”

Now the expression Daisy managed was odd. “Seriously?” She jabbed her finger toward the water feature across the street. When I looked, I realized there was a man standing there with a camera. He looked intent on what he was doing.

“Um … I didn’t even see him,” I admitted.

“He’s been following us since we left the hotel,” Sam said on a laugh.

“That is so weird.” I stared at the photographer for several seconds. He raised his hand and waved at me but didn’t come over. Obviously, he was waiting for us to start walking again. “How could I have missed him?” It wasn’t as if there were a bunch of people flooding the streets. It was mostly us and early morning coffee drinkers. That was it.

You missed it because you weren’t looking for him,my inner voice taunted.You were looking at her.

I tried to remain calm as I offered up a wan smile for their benefit. “Let’s keep going,” I said. “I want to see all of it.”

“Okay.” Daisy didn’t look as if she believed anything that came out of my mouth.

Sam, though, was perfectly happy and relaxed now that I’d stopped being a jerk to her. Was that all it took to make her happy? I wasn’t even being nice. I just wasn’t being a complete and total asshole. Imagine being so comfortable with yourself that someone not being a donkey was enough to make you legitimately happy.

How did that even work?

“Come on,” Daisy prodded. “TheBewitchedstatue is this way, and there’s a story that goes along with it. Then I’ll take you down by the water, past the House of the Seven Gables, show you where the best bars are—remind me to tell you about the pickle martini—and then we’ll get lunch.”

“What’s a pickle martini?” Sam asked.

“Exactly what it sounds like.”

“I’m both fascinated and terrified,” Sam admitted.

She wasn’t the only one, I realized. I was both fascinated and terrified as well…but for a completely different reason.

This was so not good.

5

FIVE

Salem felt bigger than it actually was when we finished our tour. The hike out to the House of the Seven Gables hadn’t been bad. The walk back—my stomach growling the entire way—had felt way longer than was necessary, though. It didn’t help that Leo seemed determined to match his pace with mine. Sure, it made sense for the photos, but our fingers accidentally brushed multiple times, and whenever it happened I felt an odd jolt to a part of my body I wasn’t expecting to get jolted.

Leo was so not my type. He was surly, mean, and never smiled. Despite that, I sensed a loneliness under his tough guy veneer that tugged at my heartstrings. I didn’t know a lot about him—even after hearing he’d been cast I opted not to read all the bad stories about him on the internet because I didn’t want that to sway my opinion—but now I knew I would have to read those stories. There was something there I was missing, and I had to figure out what.

By the time we reached Cauldron Bubble Bistro, the restaurant Daisy’s friends owned, I was ready for a nap. Okay, I wanted food first. Then I would want a nap. The inside of the restaurant was decked out for Halloween, which made sensebecause most of the businesses in town seemed to embrace the Halloween theme year-round.

“Well, well, well,” a happy man said from behind the hostess stand when we entered. “I was starting to think you’d forgotten about us. My wife believes you’ve abandoned her because you don’t like babies.”

Daisy made a face. “Who said I didn’t like babies?”

“Well, I don’t think she likes them all that much right now,” the man replied. He leaned forward and whispered the next part. “She’s a little big.”

“I heard that!” a screechy voice snapped from somewhere farther back in the restaurant. The lighting was dim so I couldn’t immediately make her out.

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